Young drivers provide new challenge for ARCA veteran Frank Kimmel

MARNE -- The winds of change are whipping through the ARCA Series in recent years with an onslaught of young talent, but veteran Frank Kimmel continues to fight that change every lap of the way.

Kimmel, ARCA's nine-time champion, and the series returned to the Berlin Raceway for Saturday night’s ARCA Berlin 200.

The veteran reeled off eight consecutive championships before he was dethroned by Justin Allgaier in 2008, and a year ago, Justin Lofton won the title.

Allgaier and Lofton are 24. Combined, they are as old as the 48-year-old Kimmel.

But Kimmel, of Clarksville, Ind., continues to show the kids he still can compete. He entered Saturday’s race third in the season point standings, 70 points behind Justin Marks, 29. Kimmel finished fifth at Berlin.

“The last two or three years, we have had young kids come in who are running the whole series, and that’s been a little bit of a different thing, and they are bringing great equipment,” Kimmel said. “There are some really good teams, and it has made us step up our program.

“It has changed so much. Now, a win means even more and maybe more in a different way. To go out and beat these kids, you have to really be on your game. You have to be up on the wheel and drive really hard.”

Kimmel has stayed in the title hunt with consistency and has recorded seven consecutive top-seven finishes.

“We have done this so far by being really consistent,” Kimmel said before Saturday's action. “In the past six races, we have really picked up our performance.”

Kimmel said he plans to continue to race until he is 50, then reevaluate his career. While he has enjoyed plenty of success at the ARCA level, he has never had the opportunity to compete in NASCAR on a full-time basis.

“I ran seven or eight Winston Cup races back in the day, and I ran a Busch race and ran 15 or 16 Truck races,” Kimmel said. “But I never had the opportunity to go out and do it right. When I got successful in ARCA, I was already in my 30s. We all know the youth movement has hit (in NASCAR). That has slowed us down a little bit.

“But the main thing has been sponsorship. Back then, we had Advanced Auto Parts, and that was a great company for 10 years for us, and then we moved into the Pork The Other White Meat slogan. That was a great deal for us.

“Now, we have Ansell Menards. They have a budget for us to race in ARCA. We can’t take this budget and move up to the next level, and they understand it and we understand it, so we stay here and race as hard as we can.”